“Gaming has always been appealing to brands because in the beginning they could do anything,” said Allison McDuffee, global head of brand insights and measurement at Roblox. “But then everybody kind of stepped back and went, 'Wait a minute. We didn't really set this up for success in terms of measurement.'"

Digital gamers will spend one hour and 50 minutes (1:50) daily playing games this year, EMARKETER forecasts, and these consumers are increasingly accustomed to gamified ads.

• Some 38% of Gen Z has seen or participated in a gamified ad in the past three months, according to an October 2025 YouGov report.

As gaming attracts larger brand budgets, platforms like Roblox are under pressure to operate less like experimental channels and more like established media. That shift is driving a broader overhaul of how ads are measured, standardized, and monetized on the platform.

Making gaming measurable

To protect budgets, Roblox has prioritized building a measurement framework that aligns with the rest of the advertising ecosystem, including third-party verification and viewability standards.

“I always joke that when you fill out a report, if you’re the box with the asterisks and are a little bit different, that’s how you end up not getting reinvestment in the future,” said McDuffee.

Roblox is pushing for measurement standards while updating its ad policies to standardize how ads are defined, labeled, and managed on the platform.

• The changes also include new protections for younger users, with all ads served to users under 13 required to be COPPA-compliant and rewarded ads barred for that age group.
• Starting January 2027, Roblox will take a cut of revenue from in-platform brand deals that creators previously kept entirely, functioning less like a social media platform and more like a media company.

Getting ad integrations right

For marketers, just being in gaming environments isn’t enough, and flashy activations struggle to drive repeat investment without clear results.

“We’re in a world now where we can do the cool, innovative things and back it up much better than we ever have been able to before,” McDuffee said. “That parity is what gets CFOs to greenlight sustained spend.”

wSome 72% of Gen Z adults find it important that a cultural event allows them to interact, not just watch, according to a recent Roblox study in partnership with Ipsos. For advertisers, that means building engaging experiences, not just visible ads.

Where creators fit

The shift toward revenue sharing underscores the growing importance of creators in Roblox’s ad ecosystem. Because Roblox is built around user-generated experiences, creators are not just distribution channels for brand campaigns. Instead, they design the environments where those campaigns appear.

“Our creators are building 3D immersive worlds, and it takes so much knowledge and expertise to do that,” McDuffee said.

That gives creators a central role in integrating ads into gameplay. Rather than dictating placements, Roblox leaves it to creators to determine where an ad, reward, or branded item will feel useful rather than disruptive.

“They know what the perfect place would be to add in another life, or give somebody a power up, or give them a virtual item,” she said. “Having that knowledge is going to make the whole process work better.”

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.